starting about 3 days ago, i get black screen with only a barely visible black cursor whenever starting the game. I usually try logging in around server restart time on classic tanki, but fade to black issue continues long after normal server restart time, like an hour or so afterward.

Ok, so just installed Steam version and it does exactly same thing as client version and in Task manager looks to be the same Tankix.exe process. I let the TankiX client run for about an hour on black screen when the "lost connection to server" screen came up, but faded to black again when I reconnect. Noticed in Task Manager that, except for a regular .01 Mbps blip once in awhile, there is 0% network activity from the Tankix.exe process..